Quim Torra quotes the Catalan group Txarango in his swearing-in: light at the end of the tunnel?

Note: We are aware that this topic is just a bit outside our normal coverage, but as we said a while back, we believe that we need to “reflect on what’s happening in our sister country Catalonia, because, in many ways, over the last century, they’ve been a companion in our nation’s road to freedom, just as we Basques have been their companions and allies towards their freedom”.

Catalan presidential candidate Quim Torra has just just quoted, in his investiture speech, lyrics from a song by the Catalan group Txarango, “Agafant l’Horitzó (Grabbing the Horizon)”. We found out thanks to elnacional.cat.

It’s a song that’s full of meaning, and we appreciate that a presidential candidate used its lyrics to talk about the future of Catalonia. Songs can become symbols and, in any case, they’re an extraordinary tool to convey feelings.

A few months ago, while watching events unfold in Catalonia, we wrote an article that’s still current today. In it, we joined together the symbolic song of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution (we have so much to learn from the Portuguese), a speech by our very own Lehendakari Aguirre when he was a representative in Congress in Madrid, and the lyrics to a song by Els Segadors.

It’s clear that the next time we quote a song to talk about Catalonia, we’ll have to use Txarango. We hope that that will be when the Catalan Government has its elected leaders back in power, and this nightmare of Article 155 will have finished.

Lo poble mana, el govern obeeix. (The people order, the government obeys)

(Catalonia, triumphant,will again be rich and full!Get back all you peoplewho are so vain and arrogant!)

Some readers may be wondering why we’re talking about this on the blog. The answer is quite simple: because we’ve been hearing so much disastrous news out of Catalonia that we’re grateful to get to enjoy any ray of hope.

Also, by the way, these songs’ lyrics are just as valid for the Basques.